Use of wireless devices&#39; external storage

ABSTRACT

Adapting web-based external storage, wireless device can posses huge amount of storage that current any wireless device&#39;s internal storage can not provide. To effectively let the storage server providing external storage (file system) for wireless device, the storage of a storage server need to be partitioned into multiple small storage volume and need to be exported to each specific wireless device. The console support software coupled with web-server software of a server provides both users of wireless device and console through web-browser to perform tasks of creating and utilizing external storage (file system). To support larger number of wireless devices with external storage, a central controlled distributed scalable virtual machine infrastructure can be deployed. The larger number of storage server controlled by a central control system can satisfy unlimited wireless devices external storage needs.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention is the continuation of the previous invention,application No. 60/401,238 of “Concurrent Web Based Multi-task Supportfor Control Management System”, where the claim 20 item a), b), d),claim 30 item b), and together with claim 36 represent an invention ofusing storage of a server system as the external storage for wirelessdevices. This invention focuses on how can a wireless device useractually use external storage. Specially it focus on how can a wirelessdevice to download data to its external storage, which its principle haspreliminary described in claim 19) of previous invention, applicationNo. 60/402,626 of “IP Based Distributed Virtual SAN”, to transmit datain wireless environment.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION a) Terminology:

The Internal Storage of a System:

The storage media such as hard disk drives, memory sticks, memory etc isconnected to a system directly through bus or a few inches of cable.Therefore, the storage media actually is a component of a system in asame enclosure.

The External Storage of a System:

The storage media is not a component of a system in a same enclosure.Therefore, they has to be connected through longer cable such asEthernet cable for IP based storage, Fiber channel cable for fiberchannel storage, or wireless media etc. The storage media of externalstorage could be magnetic hard disk drives, solid sate disk, opticalstorage drives, memory card, etc. and could be in any form such as Raid,which usually consists a group of hard disk drives.

The Storage Partition, its Volumes, and the Corresponding File System:

To effectively use the storage system, the storage usually needs to bepartitioned into small volumes. After partition, each volumes can beused to establish file systems on it. To simplify the discussion, theterm of the storage volume, its corresponding file system, and the termof the partition of a storage are used without differentiation in thisinvention.

CCDSVM:

It is an abbreviation for central controlled distributed scalablevirtual machine system. The CCDSVM allows a control management stationto control group of systems and provide distributed services to clientsystem in Internet, Intranet, and LAN environment.

ISP & ASP:

Internet service provider and application service provider.

b) Figures:

FIG. 1: This is the same figure as FIG. 1 of “Concurrent Web BasedMulti-task Support for Control Management System” with exception ofrenaming console host as wireless device.

FIG. 2: This is the same figure as FIG. 1 except that it shows the moredetails of storage system controlled by the server. In addition,multiple wireless devices are presented.

FIG. 3: This figure shows the scheme of wireless device downloadcontents from ISP/ASP or other web sites to the external storage of thiswireless device.

FIG. 4: This is the same figure as FIG. 1 of “IP Based DistributedVirtual SAN” with exception that each IP storage server provide filesystem as external storage for wireless devices instead of provide IPbased virtual SAN service. Also, each host actually is a wirelessdevice.

c) Assumptions:

Unless specified, the programming language, the protocols used by eachsoftware modules, and the system used described in this invention areassumed to be the same as described in previous patents submission.

In the drawing, like elements are designated by like reference numbers.Further, when a list of identical elements is present, only one elementwill be given the reference number.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Today the wireless users commonly face the problem of lack of storagecapacity on their wireless devices such as cell phone or PDA, whichusually limited to 256 MB for PDA and much less for cell phone. Toeffectively solve this problem and let users own multiple GB of storagefor their wireless devices as well as allow users to use GB storage fortheir multimedia application, the storage on a server can be used asexternal storage for wireless devices. This technology has been claimedin previous two patents submission by the same author. Now we canexamine how does the external storage actually be used by the wirelessdevice. We can let each server unit (3 of FIG. 2) partitions its storagesystem in such way that each volumes will have multi-GB in size.Therefore, each user from web-browser of any of wireless devices canexclusively be assigned and exclusively access a specific storage volumeon a server unit. For example, if we need to provide each user 4 GB ofstorage space, then a 160 GB disk drive can support 40 users. A 4096 GBstorage system on a server unit can support 1024 user. Further, any dataon the wireless device can be transmitted to assigned storage volumes ona server unit. In addition, the user on the wireless device also candownload the multimedia data from any ISP or ASP to the assigned storagevolumes of a designated server unit through out-band approach (FIG. 3).Finally, the user can use their web-browser, which has functionality ofinvoking embedded video or music, to enjoy their stored multimediacontents.

These and other futures, aspects and advantages of the present inventionwill become understood with reference to the following description,appended claims, and accompanying figures where:

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1: This figure demonstrates the network connection between awireless device and a server, where

-   -   a) Net (2) represent a communication link, which may combined        with wireless and non-wireless connection media and guarantee        the communication packet can be sent/received between wireless        device and the server. It is also assume that the net (2)        infrastructure is built up in such way that the user from        web-browser of a wireless device can access and browse any        web-site on the Internet, Intranet.    -   b) As described in previous patents submission, the console        support software (5) on server (3) can support web-based        multi-task for users on web-browser (8) of wireless device (1).        Further, the user on the web-browser (8) is able to perform        creating structured layered files/directory or folders, and        perform data management operations such as delete, move, copy,        rename for data files or folders/directories etc on the assigned        storage volume of server (3).    -   c) As described in previous patents submission, the other        software modules (9) of wireless device (1) is also capable to        send data to or receive data from other service modules (7) of        server (3) via communication link (2) through suitable IP or        non-IP based protocol. The data file being sent cold be a        digital photo picture, a message etc.    -   d) As described in previous patents submission, the console        supporting software (5) of server (3) and the other software        modules (9) of wireless device (1) can be implemented with any        suitable languages such as C, C++, Java, etc.    -   e) As described in previous patents submission, the web-browser        (8) of wireless device (1) can be any suitable software, which        is capable to communication with web server software (4) on        server (3) or with any other web server through HTTP protocol.

FIG. 2: This figure demonstrated how does the storage of a server can beassigned to multiple wireless devices as their external storage.

-   -   a) As described in previous patents submitting, the storage        system (10) of server (3) can be partitioned into multiple        volumes (11) by administration staff through web-console (13) of        web console host (12).    -   b) The storage system (10) of server (3) can be partitioned in        such way that each wireless devices can be assigned with a        volume of desired size, which can be best supported by the        server for maximum number of wireless devices.    -   c) As described in previous patents submitting, the storage        connection media could be any kinds such as SCSI cable, IP        cable, Fiber cable etc. The storage system itself could be        various types.    -   d) It assumes that the storage system can be accessed through IP        or non-IP based network and protocols.

FIG. 3: This figure demonstrated how a user from a web-browser (8) onwireless devices(1) can download data from a known web-site (12) tohis/her assigned external storage (10) of server (3).

The dash-lined path (a) represents a communication channel betweenwireless device (1) and any remote download web-site (12), whichprovides the contents for web download. The dash-lined path (b)represent a communication channel between wireless devices (1) and thestorage server (3). The dash-lined path (c) represents a communicationchannel between wireless devices (1) and the remote web-server (12),which provide download contents.

THE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 1: The Use of the ExternalStorage of the Wireless Device:

The FIG. 2 shows a simplified diagram of the wireless devices (1 of FIG.2) using external storage system (10 of FIG. 2) of a server (3 of FIG.2), which will effectively resolve the storage limitation problem ofwireless devices (1 of FIG. 2).

Partition Storage Volumes (FIG. 2)

With this invention, the entire storage (10 of FIG. 2) on a server (3 ofFIG. 2) need to be partitioned into suitable size of volumes (11 of FIG.2) such as 4 GB each, which will allow the server to serve maximumnumber of wireless devices (1 of FIG. 2). With the web console supportsoftware (5 of FIG. 2) of the server (3 of FIG. 2), The task ofpartitioning storage can be done through web-console (13 of FIG. 2) onconsole host (12 of FIG. 2) by administrative staff.

In order to support such storage partition, first the console supportsoftware (5 of FIG. 2) of the server (3 of FIG. 2) must send storageinformation of the server (3 of FIG. 2) to the web-console (13 of FIG.2) of console host (12 of FIG. 2). This including the storage devicename, storage total size etc. Second, the administration staff onconsole host (12 of FIG. 2) can use web-console (13 of FIG. 2) to filland to send the storage partition information to the console supportsoftware (5 of FIG. 2) of the server (3 of FIG. 2). The storagepartition information includes the number of the partitions (volumes)and the size of each partition (volume). Third, upon receiving storagepartition information from web-console (13 of FIG. 2) of console host(12 of FIG. 2), the console support software (5 of FIG. 2) of the server(3 of FIG. 2) performs the actual storage partition, which dividesentire storage into multiple small volumes. Finally, for each smallstorage volume, a corresponding file system could be built up.

Assign Storage Volumes (FIG. 2):

Each storage volumes with its corresponding file system (11 of FIG. 2)of the storage (10 of FIG. 2) on server (3 of FIG. 2) needs to beexclusively assigned and exported to a given specific wireless device (1of FIG. 2) by the console support software (5 of FIG. 2) on server (3 ofFIG. 2).

Data and Storage Volume Management (FIG. 2)

1) With the support of console support software modules (5 of FIG. 2) ofthe server system (3 of FIG. 2), the user on web-browser (8 of FIG. 2)of wireless device (1 of FIG. 2) can setup the folder/directorystructure on the file system of his/her assigned external storage volume(11 of FIG. 2). In addition, the user on web-browser (8 of FIG. 2) ofwireless device (1 of FIG. 2) can perform all data management operationssuch as delete, copy, move, rename etc. on that file system.

In order to support such data management on external storage (10 of FIG.2) from web-browser (8 of FIG. 2) of the wireless device (1 of FIG. 2),first the console support software modules (5 of FIG. 2) of the serversystem (3 of FIG. 2) must communicate with web-browser (8 of FIG. 2) ofwireless device (1 of FIG. 2). Therefore, the user from web-browser (8of FIG. 2) of wireless device (1 of FIG. 2) can choose desired datamanagement operations and send operation information to console supportsoftware modules (5 of FIG. 2) of the server system (3 of FIG. 2). Theseoperations include establishing folder/directory, copying, moving, orreaming data file etc. Second, upon receiving the data managementoperation, the console support software modules (5 of FIG. 2) of theserver system (3 of FIG. 2) actually performs these operations on theassigned file system of assigned external storage volume (11 of FIG. 2)on the server system (3 of FIG. 2).

Store Data from Wireless Device into External Storage (FIG. 2)

To store the data such as digital photo pictures, or messages into theassigned file system on external storage (10 of FIG. 2) of a server (3of FIG. 2), the other software modules (9 of FIG. 2) of wireless device(1 of FIG. 2) need to send these data to other service modules (7 ofFIG. 2) of server (3 of FIG. 2) via communication link between them.Upon receiving data, the other service modules (7 of FIG. 2) of server(3 of FIG. 2) write these data to assigned file system of the assignedstorage volume ( 11 of FIG. 2) on server (3 of FIG. 2). The protocolused between these two communication entities could be either IP ornon-IP based protocol.

Download Data from Remote Web Server Site into External Storage (FIG. 3)

If the wireless device (1 of FIG. 3) user want to download data fromremote web server (12 of FIG. 3) into assigned file system (11 of FIG.3) of the external storage (10 of FIG. 3) on server (3 of FIG. 3), thefollowing steps are required:

-   -   1) The user from web-browser (8 of FIG. 3) of a specific        wireless device (1 of FIG. 3) accesses a remote download web        server site (12 of FIG. 3) and obtain the information for        download via path (a) of FIG. 3. For example, to get a web-page,        which contains the data name for download.    -   2) The other software modules (9 of FIG. 3) of a specific        wireless device (1 of FIG. 3) obtains download information,        which becomes available in the cached web-pages on wireless        device (1 of FIG. 3) after the web-browser (8 of FIG. 3)        accessing the download site (12 of FIG. 3).    -   3) The other software modules (9 of FIG. 3) of a specific        wireless device (1 of FIG. 3) send the obtained download        information to other service modules (7 of FIG. 3) of storage        server (3 of FIG. 3) via path (b) of FIG. 3.    -   4) Upon receiving the download information from a specific        wireless device (1), the other service module (7 of FIG. 3) of        the storage server (3 of FIG. 3) send a web download request to        download web-site (12 of FIG. 3) via path (c) of FIG. 3 based on        download information obtained. It then receives the download        information data from web server of download web-site (12 of        FIG. 3).    -   5) Upon receiving downloaded data, the other service modules (7        of FIG. 3) of the storage server (3 of FIG. 3) write these data        for the specific wireless device (1 of FIG. 3) into the assigned        file system (11 of FIG. 3) on the server (3 of FIG. 3).

Retrieve Data from External Storage of Wireless Device

-   -   1) If a web-browser has embedded video or music functionality,        the web-browser (8 of Fig. ) of a wireless device (1 of FIG. 2)        can be used to retrieve and play those multimedia data file such        as video or music stored in wireless device's external storage        volume (10 of FIG. 2), which actually located on a server (3 of        FIG. 2).    -   2) If there is needs, the other software module (9 of FIG. 2) of        wireless device (1 of FIG. 2) also can retrieve data file from        assigned file system of the assigned storage volume (11 of        FIG. 2) on server (3 of FIG. 2).

Support External Storage for Large Number of Wireless Devices

If we need to provide each user 2 GB of storage space, then a 160 GBdisk drive can support 80 users. A 4096 GB (4 Tera Bytes) storage systemon a server unit can support 2024 user. Each server only can efficientlysupport a limited size of the storage system. In order to support alarge number of wireless devices with external storage such as 500,000of them, a larger number of servers are required, in this case 250servers is required. In order to let a larger number of the server toeffectively support larger number of the wireless devices, aninfrastructure like CCDSVM is desirable, which has been described inprevious patents submission. With CCDSVM the control management stationcan control larger number of storage servers to provide external storagefor huge number of the wireless devices.

1-30. (canceled)
 31. A method of out-band downloading a file from aweb-site to a targeted system comprising: facilitating a user from aweb-browser of a system via a network of LAN, Intranet or Internet toaccesses a web-page on a remote web site, where the web-page containsfile download information including the file path, the IP address of theremote web site, and related information for downloading; instructingthe system to obtain the file download information contained in the webpage from the cached web page on the system; instructing the system tosend the obtained file download information to a permitted targetedsystem via the network; instructing the targeted system to receive saidfile download information and send a download request to the remote website via the network; and instructing the targeted system to receivingthe downloading file stream from the remote web-site directly into adesignated file system of the targeted system without goes through saidsystem.
 32. The method of claim 31, wherein said web browser of a systemand the targeted system further includes: provide the user from awireless device's web browser to access the web page, provide the userfrom a personal desktop or laptop to access the web page, and provideuser from a server's web browser to access the web page; and provideanother remote laptop, desktop, or server as the targeted system.
 33. Asystem provides external storage for wireless devices that comprises: aserver unit connects to a network and to be accessed by one or moreusers from each of their own web browser via the network of LAN,Intranet or Internet; the server unit is configured with one or morestorage devices, which to be partitioned by one or more administrationusers from each of their own web browser over the network, and beassigned to each wireless device as its external storage; and the serverunit facilitates each user of the wireless devices from his/her webbrowser to perform tasks of accessing and managing the files andfile-folders in the wireless device's assigned external storage, wherethe tasks include downloading files from remote web sites into theassigned external storage on the server unit; and the server unit alsofacilitates each user's one or more tasks to be run concurrently in theuser's web browser.
 34. The system of the claim 33, wherein the serverunit facilitates each administration user from a web browser to selectone storage device at time from the displayed a list of one or morestorage devices on the server unit to partition the selected storagedevice into one or more storage volumes for all storage devices on thelist in response to the requirement of providing desired sized externalstorage to each wireless device.
 35. The system of the claim 34, whereinthe server unit also facilitates each administration user from a webbrowser to create one file system on a corresponding storage volume at atime for all storage volumes; and for all file systems, to assign a filesystem to a corresponding user's wireless device for the user from thewireless device's web browser to access and manage files andfile-folders on the assigned external storage.
 36. The claim 35, whereinsaid user from wireless device's web browser to access and manage thefiles and file-folders on the assigned external storage furtherincludes: creating file folders and directories structure on theassigned storage, storing files on the wireless device into the assignedstorage, performing data management tasks for the assigned storageincluding deleting, renaming, moving, and copying file-folders,directories and files, and including accessing and retrieving files fromthe assigned external storage to the user's wireless device; whereinsaid files includes streaming video, audio, digital picture, and messagefile.
 37. The system of claim 33, wherein said downloading files from aremote web site to the assigned storage on the server unit furtherincludes: facilitating a user from a wireless device's web-browser via anetwork to select one remote web site at a time for accessing a web-pageon a remote web site, where the web-page contains a file downloadinformation including file path, and IP address of the remote web sitefor downloading; instructing the wireless device to obtain the filedownload information contained in the web page from the cached web pagedata on the wireless device; instructing the wireless device to send theobtained file download information to the server unit via the network;instructing the server unit to receive said file download informationand send a download request to the remote web site via the network; andinstructing the server unit to receiving the downloading file streamfrom the remote web-site directly into the user's wireless device'sassigned external storage without goes through the wireless device. 38.The system of claim 33, wherein said facilitates user from wirelessdevice's web browser to perform tasks further includes: the server unitfacilitates to display one or more storage devices of the server unitinto administration user's web browser in response to the requirementfor the user to perform partitioning each storage device into one ormore storages volume; display one or more storage volumes of the serverunit into administration user's web browser in response to therequirement for the user to perform creating a file system for eachcorresponding storage volume; and display assigned external file systeminto a corresponding user's wireless device's web browser in response tothe user of the wireless device to perform tasks of accessing andmanaging one or more files and file-folder in the assigned externalstorage.
 39. The system of claim 33 further includes: provideadministration user from wireless device's web browser to perform tasksincluding partitioning the storage devices and creating file systems forthe server unit; provide administration user from laptop/desktop's webbrowser to perform tasks including partitioning the storage devices andcreating file systems for the server unit; and provide administrationuser from server unit's web browser to perform tasks includingpartitioning the storage devices and creating file systems for theserver unit.
 40. A virtual server provides external storage for one ormore wireless devices that comprises: one or more server units, whereeach server unit configured with one or more storage devices; and acontrol system connects and controls said one or more server units via anetwork of LAN, Intranet or Internet to form a central controlleddistributed scalable virtual machine (“CCDSVM”) to be accessed by one ormore users, wherein the control system facilitates each administrationuser from a web browser over the network to partition one or morestorage devices on each server unit and to assign each partitionedstorage volume of each storage device to a corresponding user's wirelessdevices as external storage; and wherein the control system alsofacilitates each user from a wireless device's web browser via thenetwork to perform tasks of accessing and managing one or more files andfile-folders on the assigned external storage of a assigned server unit,and the control system also facilitates each user's one or more tasks tobe run concurrently in the user's web browser; and wherein each serverunit provides the services and data to each assigned wireless devices independent of other server units and without going through the controlsystem in response to the user of each wireless device performing saidtasks.
 41. The virtual server of the claim 40, wherein the controlsystem facilitates each administration user from a web browser topartition each storage device of each server unit into one or morestorage volumes for all storage of the virtual server in response to therequirement of providing desired sized external storage to each user'swireless device.
 42. The virtual server of the claim 40, wherein thecontrol system also facilitates each administration user from a webbrowser to create one file system on a corresponding storage volume at atime for all storage devices on each server unit; and further to createone or more file-folders/directories structure on each file system. 43.The virtual server of the claim 40, wherein the control system alsofacilitates to assign each file system to a corresponding wirelessdevice, and facilitates the user of each wireless device from its webbrowser to access and manage one or more files and file-folders on theassigned external storage.
 44. The claim 43, wherein said provide theuser from wireless device's web browser to access and manage assignedexternal storage includes: creating file folders and directoriesstructure on the assigned storage, storing files on the wireless deviceinto the assigned external storage, performing data management tasks forthe assigned storage including deleting, renaming, moving, and copyingfile- folders/directories and files, and including accessing andretrieving files from assigned external storage to the user's wirelessdevice via the web browser; wherein said files includes streaming video,audio, digital picture, and message file.
 45. The claim 43, wherein saidprovide the user from wireless device to access and manage assignedexternal storage further includes: facilitating a user from a wirelessdevice's web-browser via a network to select one remote web site at atime for accessing a web-page on a remote web site, where the web-pagecontains a file download information including file path, and IP addressof the remote web site for downloading; instructing the wireless deviceto obtain the file download information from the cached web page on thewireless device; instructing the wireless device to send the obtainedfile download information to its assigned server unit in the virtualserver via the network; instructing the assigned server unit to receivesaid file download information and send a download request to the remoteweb site via the network; and instructing the assigned server unit toreceive and deposit the downloading file stream from the remote web-sitedirectly into the user's assigned file system on the server unit withoutgoes through the wireless device.
 46. The virtual server of claim 40,wherein the control system further facilitates displaying one or moreserver units and each server unit's one or more storage devices intoeach administration user's web browser in response to the requirementfor the user to perform tasks of partitioning each storage device intoone or more storages volume; displaying one or more storage volumes ofeach server unit into administration user's web browser in response tothe requirement for the user to perform tasks of creating a file systemfor each corresponding storage volume; and displaying assigned externalfile system on the assigned system unit into a corresponding wirelessdevice's web browser in response to the user of the wireless device toperform tasks of accessing and managing the assigned external storage.47. The claim 46, wherein the control system also facilitates each userincluding the administration user from web browser to specify the taskinformation for performing each task, and to transmit each taskinformation from the web browser to the control system.
 48. The claim 47further includes: provide the control system to receive, identify andruns each task in the background, distribute each task to acorresponding server unit for actual executing, and provide task statusor result back to administration user's web browser in response to eachuser's tasks.
 49. The claim 47 further includes: provide each serverunit delivers the requested application service and data directly backto the corresponding user's wireless devices without going through thecontrol system and independent of other server units in response to eachuser's performed tasks of accessing application and data service. 50.The virtual server of claim 40 further includes: form a virtual serveron a LAN to be accessed by one or more users including theadministration user from each of their own web browser via said network;form a virtual server over a Intranet to be accessed by one or moreusers including the administration user from each of their own webbrowser via said network; and form a virtual server over the Internet tobe accessed by one or more users including the administration user fromeach of their own web browser via said network;
 51. The virtual claim 50further includes: provide administration user from wireless device's webbrowser to perform tasks including partitioning the storage devices andcreating file systems for the server unit; provide administration userfrom laptop/desktop's web browser to perform tasks includingpartitioning the storage devices and creating file systems for theserver unit; and provide administration user from server unit's webbrowser to perform tasks including partitioning the storage devices andcreating file systems for the server unit.